Following his nose through the forest, Shurry located a bugbear, it was a monster comparable to the minotaur in terms of level, basically just a bit faster than it. Hmm? What is that thing it's reaching for? Is it a hive? No, it looks odd. There's two. Shurry lunged forward, out speeding the bugbear to the point it was confused about what happened.
Shurry posted on top of the tree branch, having picked the two fruits, and looked at the monster with a curious expression, then handed one of the fruits to it. "Is this what you want?"
The bugbear having come back to its senses was about to attack Shurry, but opted for the fruit first. It gobbled it up real quick and then looked at the other fruit.
"So this is the fruit then?" He sniffed it, and pulled back. "It smells really sweet…" He took a bite. "Ack, too sweet. I want meat so bad." The monster below seemed to be a little less hostile, almost like it understood what Shurry said. "If you can understand me, jump twice and spin around once. Do that and I'll give you the fruit."
The monster below didn't budge, instead it attacked. "Sorry, it's my fruit now then." Shurry said, with a swift motion dodging the wild strikes, and then performed a powerful whip of his tail, crackling the air, and sent the bugbear's head flying. "Time to find more fruits, and cheer big sis up!" He leaped and bound through the forest collecting all of the fruits he could find, then ran right back to camp.
…
Meteria was sitting there, staring at the fire, munching on her barley rations. I wish I could control my magic better. It's so strong, but I can't control it right now. I almost killed him… She hadn't realized that her view of the fire had been blocked. Now I'm seeing him as if he were a ghost.
"Hey big sis Meteria, do you like these things?" Shurry asked, with a curious expression barely able to hold back his expectations.
Meteria blinked a few times, and then rubbed both of them. She was stunned that the Shurry she saw wasn't a vision, but then the scent of one of her favorite foods filled her nose, and a smile appeared. "These are- I love these fruits! Honey clouds are so yummy and sweet!" She exclaimed with excitement, as if the depression before was merely a phase.
Shurry responded with a rather excited tail, and happy expression on his face. "Yay! Big sis smiled!"
"Hey, control your tail, or you'll blow out the fire." Someone chuckled loudly.
"Huh? Oh, sorry!" Shurry apologized, slowing down the gale force winds coming from his tail. Then he looked back at Meteria. "I'm happy!"
The pervy bunny boy scooched over, eyeing the honey clouds, and before Meteria could even decide which one to grab, he took one of the fruits and bit into it. "Hmm, it's good, but I don't think I'll ever get used to their overly sweet flavor." He said, then noticed the looks he was receiving weren't friendly. "Huh?" He finished eating the fruit. "What's wrong?"
"Those were for big sis!"
"And you don't even like these things!" Meteria shouted and started chasing the bunny boy around for a bit before nearly collapsing. "Just wait, until I catch you!"
Shurry transformed, and dove to a laying position behind Meteria, catching her before she fell to the ground. "Don't hurt yourself big sis."
"Huh? Oh my goodness you're so soft and fluffy, I could- just-" Meteria started nodding off. The honey clouds were brought over by someone else, and placed near her for when she woke up.
"I'll cast a little healing on her for now, just in case."
…
A couple hours later, the second team led by Empress had arrived, and with them was all of the camping equipment along with the rest of the crew for the duration of the expedition. Once Alfia arrived to see Meteria napping on a sleepy white wolf, she asked what happened. Subsequently a particularly pervy bunny boy went flying into a tree more than a few times. However, that was enough excretion for her, and she too laid down next to sister, using the wolf as a pillow.
"Let's not wake them until dinner is ready."
"That'll be tough, Shurry can smell meat cooking from beyond the horizon, in his sleep, and in an enclosed space like the dungeon, it should be about the same." Leon chuckled.
"We can deal with that when the time comes. For now, I'd like to talk about the plan from here to the next safety point."
"Oh, how did Shurry do?" Empress asked, wondering if Maxim had properly given him a chance to show off yet.
"About that, I'll explain, just don't blame me if you don't believe it."
"I won't."
The leaders all gathered together and discussed the day's events. The forward group explained their side of things only after the larger support group had been finished with their explanations. Once Maxim and the others from the forward group finished relaying their information, the silence of the group was thick.
"To think he was actually that capable. I had thought it was all just a bunch of boasting with some truth mixed in. But after hearing that, we could really push to earn a whole lot more money this time around." Empress noted.
"I was thinking we should use this time to properly expand our knowledge of the floors we still lack good information on. For example, the 37th floor's colosseum. Though I do want to see just how powerful his healing is before making that call. That place is terrifying, even for us." Maxim said, pounding some fresh water.
"I'll agree after seeing him fight tomorrow."
"Good, this could be the perfect chance. We gain the knowledge we need with a failsafe to keep us all alive, and then we can work out better strategies later on."
"I think the two of you should try and level up soon."
"That was the plan for this expedition, however, I think it's best we can get more members to level up. Like Alfia for example, her magic is several levels stronger than her current level. And with Shurry with us, any progression of her illness is limited at worst."
"Very true…"
The meeting finished, dinner was served. Though it was very quickly realized that, a growing wolf boy needs far more sustenance than even Leon predicted. Causing some runners to run back to the surface and porter some more food down, just to last until the end of the mission.